The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-18
AN INDIANA DEMOCRAT ABROAD,

AN INDIANA DEMOCRAT ABROAD.
Congressman Matson, of this State, was one
of the speakers at the recent Bay State Club
entertainment in Boston. He was introduced
as "a favorite son of Indiana" All Indiana
Democrats are favorite sons when they get
away from home. Colonel Matson informed
were 'fiercely aggressive" he probably meant
in pursuit of office. Every Indiana Democrat
is an appetite on legs and so long as there is
any feed in sight they are fercely aggressive.
owe have always been ready" said Colonel
Matson. 'to sacrifice anything except princi-
pie for the sake of having harmony within
the ranks of our own party" Yes, always
| willing to sacrifice public interests, public
| business, the Constitution and laws, anything
except the spoils principle which holds the
organized appetite together. "The difference
| between the two parties" continued the
Colonel, sis that in the Republican party a
man dare not speak his sentiments, and the
broad, liberal and catholic spirit Of Democracy
permits man to say and act as he chooses.
Republican bigotry forbids a man to say what
he thinks" Our Congressman has said it and
it must be So For proof, contrast any South
ern State where the broad, liberal and catholic
| spirit of Democracy prevails with Massachu-
setts Iowa, or any of the down-trodden Re-
| e.
speech fourishes in the former and languishes
in the latter; note how Democratic liberalism
broadens the Southern mind and how Repub-
lican bigotry dwarfs the Northern; note how
kindly Republicans are treated in the South,
and encouraged to speak their political senti-
ments, and how Democrats are ostracised and
intimdated in the North. All this is owing
to the broad and catholic spirit Of Democracy
and to Republican bigotry.
Colonel Matson knows thing or two. He
also informed his hearers that the Indiana
Democracy were Omitted upon the great fun
damental principle that lies at the foundation
of the Democratic party, the doctrine of home
rule as against the centralizing tendencies of
Republican theories" Just so. If there is
one thing that lies nearer the heart of the
average Indiana Democrat than another it is
love of home rule and hatred of centraliza
ton. This is what actuates Sim Coy, DR.
Harrison ex-Warden Howard and all Of them
They don't care for the spoils; they are fight
ing for principle. They fear the dangerou.
tendencies of Republican Capitalization. They
are apprehensive of its results on good gov
eminent. To avert this danger and establish
Democratic home rule they would do almos
anything. Further on, referring to the APP
preaching contest of 1883, Colonel Matsor
congratulated his hearers that under Demo
cratic President ''the whole administration o
. the government has been by some mean
, lifted up to higher plane than it has occu
pied for many years" He probably referred
; to the great improvement in the postal service
, the appointment to office of penitentiar,
convicts and Jail birds, the stoppag
of the weather reports, the closinl
of United States courts, etc. Unfortunatel
! the Colonel had not time to particularize
S Concluding, he said: Il have no hesitation
= in pledging you that Indiana will stand wher
she stood in 1884. For thirty years that be
loved State of mine has been the only one O
that galaxy of the Northwest that embrace
the greater part of the agricultural interest
of this country, the only one that has cast al
electoral vote for the candidate of the Demo
cratic party. There is no retrogression there.
The Colonel was right again. There will b
no retrogresson in Indiana. The Democrat
could not retrograde, and the Republican
: will not. There will be progress. not retro
erosion. The ColonePs beloved State, tina
has so often been proved to be a tail to th
solid South, will go Republican. Indiana wi
stand in 1888 about where she stood in 1873.
but she will face the other way.
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DEMOCRATIC HARMONY.